Left 2 Freeze
by Tsun Queen
Summary: Anne's cold. Nothing for miles around is warm and non-deadly. Or so she thinks. (OC) (Hiatus over!)
1. A Frozen Beginning

Left 2 Freeze

I'm utterly alone. The only 'living' things around me are brain dead things that can't even be considered humans anymore.

It was a freezing winter night. Anne wasn't sure what day it was. Time seemed irrelevant after the outbreak. If she had to guess, it was mid December.

Years. Surviving years of this…. _Life_. Wandering from group to group. Being kicked out for 'not pulling her own weight.' In her opinion, she worked well beyond the amount of rations most of the groups gave her.

The occasional group was too kind. Died from trying to save others. I'm not too sure why I had left the groups who had lost someone. It was clearly their time of need. I regretted those choices on cold, tiring days like today.

I'm knocked out of my mostly irrelevant thoughts back to the bitterly cold world in seconds. The wind's speeds picks up. I'm glad I'm so close to the equator, but that really doesn't help truly how much cold sinks into my bone without anything but an over-used autumn coat.

With the wind comes the scent of zombie. I'm not sure what it actually smells like. If I had to say what it smelled like, I would say it smells like death, with a hint of impending doom.

A familiar growl splits the air. A hunter is nearby. I've heard -and seen- that those specials are devastating when you're alone. Many a cocky survivor has been lost like that. Ripped to shreds by groups of hunters because they ran ahead. Disgusting.

You notice something about the growl though. It isn't so much an 'I'm going to find you and rip your weak skin away from your muscle,' growl, more of an 'I'm too disheartened to try to kill you,' growl. Something you can't quite put your finger on lingered on the growl too, almost like an audible shiver. Was it cold?

You finally get a good look around where you are. An abandoned sky-scraper skeleton. A couple of pieces of wood are in place, but other than that, you're completely exposed. It sinks in how fucked you are if the hunter catches you. A fresh, warm survivor to warm the hunters hands….

You're once again startled from your thoughts, this time from a shadow drifting over you... You realize the hunter was closer then you imagined. It had hopped onto your 'shelters' flimsy 'roof' and was getting a good look at its surroundings. It had obviously caught your scent. It was trying to find you.

You idiotically let out a gasp. If this situation wasn't so dire, you would laugh at how dumb you are. The shadow twists a bit. You decide it wouldn't hurt to actually see your to-be murder. You look up. The hunter is looking straight at you.

"Well? Are you going to kill me or not? I'm sure I'd warm you right up, wouldn't I?" You taunt. You get a good grip on your gun. You know you aren't going to kill it. It's too close. In the time between you gasping and now, it had jumped down a couple of the areas of the skeleton were the floors would be. But you could make it easier for the next poor survivor to happen upon this terrible creature, if you got a few shots in.

The hunter makes the big leap down to your station firmly on the ground. You are thankful for how large the room was supposed to be. It was a good 20 feet away from you. If you were lucky, the cold would render it to have to jump twice to get you.

You aim at it. One jump. One pistol fire. One small, small jump. No fire.

You're surprised but how warm it is. It's like a personal heater. Your last moments will be a warm one.

The special reaches out to you, and scratches you. You flinch, but don't run. Your death is here. You're not immune. The hunter could easily catch you and either infect you or kill you. And you'd prefer to die now.

To your surprise, the hunter backs off. You glance at it. "What?"

It stares at you.

"Why did you scratch me if you're just going to pussy out?"

Its growls, and crawls toward you, until it's very close. It's almost under your arm.

You raise your eyebrow. "Don't tell me we have a truce."

He - You've decided the hunter is male- makes a noise which you get the feeling 'that's exactly how it is,' from.

"So, I don't kill you, you only scratch me? You _heat _me, I heat you?"

The awkward movement of his head is like a nod. You guess zombies can't do normal movements as easily as humans.

You let out a sigh. "Fine. Just don't eat me in the morning."

His tired growl is enough to let you know you're fine. You finally fully sit and allow him to sit across from you.

Maybe if you're lucky his natural zombie scent will ward off the dumber zombies in the morning.


	2. Icy Morning-After (But Not Like That)

Anne woke up with a groan. She had fallen asleep sitting with her legs crossed without realizing it. The morning sun radiated heat onto her body that rivaled the cold winter air.

She stood up and stretched and was delighted to find she could actually pop out the uncomfortable tension in her legs.

Shaky groans found their way to her awaiting ears. She was snapped into the reality of the situation. Zombies. She was vulnerable all night, but she hadn't got killed. And she had a cold special infected to thank for that. She noticed that the hunter had left, though she really wasn't surprised. She smelt the lingering odor of death still hanging around from her visitor.

After a couple minutes of hanging low and avoiding the looks of some stray infected (and shooting a couple that got way too close) Anne decided to pick up her belongings – which consisted of a hearty supply for a survivor, a handgun and a extremely shabby home-made backpack for food – and inspect the nearby houses.

She entered one that was less destroyed then the others in the make-shift neighborhood. Inside she found there wasn't much left. She found a couple of cans of what was probably rotten food, which she stuffed into her backpack. It was food, after all. Getting a stomach ache was the least of her worries.

She heard a grumble that sounded like a burp, or however that disgusting noise was described… Boomers weren't her favorite infected by a long shot.

Anne turned on her heel and as quietly and as fast as she could, ran out of the house. "That ticks off of things I have to do…" She muttered under her breath as to not alert the boomer as to where she was.

Running to her second and last house, she fumbled through all the worthless items left there. She found a couple of shells that would probably fit her gun and a new jacket and blanket. The last two wouldn't be kept for too long and were pretty much useless relating to actual survival.

She felt an uncomfortable shiver sneak up and down her spine like electricity multiple times as she put on her other jacket instead of her previous one in the privacy of the broken-down home. Hey, as unlikely as it was that it would happen, she wasn't going to expose herself as an easy target to a twisted survivor group or 'intelligent' infected that had it out for her.

With new-found warmth, Anne stepped out of the house to find a common infected running toward her. With a flick of her trained wrist, she shot the common down. She could have sworn that she heard another gunshot, though it would much more likely be her own gunshot's echo in the ghost town she resided in tricking her already troubled mind. After entering another one of her long moments of thinking, she decided to face the horde and exit the town. She started the jog begrudgingly to the towns exit.

The entire town was surrounded by gates, and there was one way out and one way in, which was the front gate. Anne had managed to get her skinny body through a small opening in the front gate's doors, though it wasn't without snagging her choppy raven hair in loose wire.

But the unfortunate truth was that now she would have to face a horde of zombies to get to her little gate-hole, as she had managed to startle them when she came through by an ungraceful shot at a car.

She was nearing the front, and ignored an evac center's sign to her right. She heard a common's disappointed yell from inside the building. As she got to the front gate, she saw the infected were still hell-bent on that car, but didn't seem to notice her. She decided to enter a welcome center to the left of her on the other side of the street until she was ready to fully head off. Wanting to go back to an area miles away from you in a zombie apocalypse wasn't the best on the brain.

Anne shuffled through a couple of the brochures in a stand on the front desk. Most had been hastily changed to stuff warning of the infected and saying the only hope was the evac center down the road; the papers bent and white around their folds from the townsfolk reading through them frantically days after the initial outbreak.

Anne scoffed at how absurd some of claims of the special infected's abilities were. Saying boomers could puke for a mile, saying witches were always angry. She glanced out the window and saw the commons surrounding the car had slowly dissipated for whatever reason.

She went deeper into the welcome center, and looked on some of the welcome centers workers' desks. One had all sorts of information from CEDA about the infected. Anne looked for a while at those, trying to get a better understanding of what she was up against. Much was already common knowledge, but a couple of things caught her eye. On all of the special infected's description pages, it said they worked on smell. It also said that they had classes, with commons on the bottom and tanks, witches, and hunters on the top, as one would expect. The classes were identified by smell. Anne raised her eyebrow at this information and kept it in mind.

Anne heard static from a radio near the front of the center and nearly jumped out of her skin. "…. H...ello? Who are you?" a man's voice croaked out.

Anne looked around anxiously before walking up to the radio. It had been severely changed, as it now worked more like a truck driver's radio. She grabbed at the microphone attached to it and coughed to see if it worked, a quiet white noise staying constant all the time.

She was greeted with a groan from the radio and an "Oh, you're infected aren't you. Goddammit."

Anne laughed before deciding the person was friendly enough. "I'm Anne. And I feel a better question would be to ask who you are."


	3. A Freezing Welcome To Human Contact

**Authors Note: Wow holy shit guys stOP FOLLOWING THIS STORY IT ISN'T EVEN THAT GOOD AND I DON'T THINK I WILL FINISH IT? I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEAS FOR THE ENDING? Also if you have any ideas for the story, please share! I don't have any. Sad noises. Okay that's enough of that!**

With a huff, Anne exited the welcome center while attracting as little attention as possible. Sure, there was only two commons at the car, but she still didn't want to waste bullets.

She decided to mull over what the guy had said while walking to the godforsaken place in which he was residing.

He was in a nearby town. As it turns out, the radio was on at her side, and he had heard Anne rustling around through the papers.

Anne hummed quietly when she recalled the fact that the man hadn't given his name – sure, it was probably for safety purposes, seeing how after the infection most survivors became corrupt - and Anne couldn't help but feel offended. After all, she hadn't even said anything that would suggest she had negative intentions!

And to be honest, she didn't have any intentions at all, actually...

Anne snapped out of her thoughts briefly to go through the gate.

'And now right back into the mental fray,' Anne thought with a suppressed huff.

The outside of the city was a large thicket, and to the north west was the city Mr Mystery Radio Man was living at. To be honest, it was pretty spooky, and Anne felt a shiver down her spine at the thought of going through it until dark.

Pulling her jackets on tighter, Anne walked briskly on the frozen ground that was riddled with dead leaves and grass. What little sun she had was blocked by the thick mass of trees in the thicket, and it made it very had to tell what time it was. Anne shivered again, and readjusted the pack on her back.

Anne tightened her hold on her handgun when she heard a twig snap and it didn't come from her. With a cautious stare, she watched the trees.

A young girl stepping out and pouncing her almost made her jump out of her skin (and or shoot the poor girl).

Anne let a scream that had started die out as she realized the girl wasn't infected. Her skin was a healthy color, and she wasn't bloody nor did she have teared clothing. She had dark brown hair held in pigtails, and her jade eyes were piercing.

"Oh, you must be the lady uncle wanted me to get! Did you just come from the town that-a-way?" The girl asked excitedly while pointing behind Anne, where the gate she had forcefully entered and exited still loomed over the town it protected on the horizon.

Anne found herself still to shocked to speak, and simply nodded while she tried to come her thudding heart.

"OK! So, you're Anne-lady, _righttt_? And you're going northwest?"

Anne made herself look a little more believable and spoke with as much false irritation as she could muster. "Yeah, I am. So I'm guessing your uncle is the guy I spoke to?"

The girl giggled and got off Anne. "Heheh, no and yeah, silly! He isn't my actual uncle, he just tells me to call him that! And he told me to get cha as soon as he heard the noises from that weird radio thingy that he doesn't let me touch."

Anne lifted herself from the ground and cracked her back for the second time that day.

"So, how far away is that town 'uncle' lives at?"

"It's a ten minute walk, why?"

"Because I've been walking for three fucking years, and I'm a little tired. Now lead the way, short stuff."

**To be continued, maybe~**


	4. END HIATUS

**Starting this month, this story's hiatus is over!**

I hope you're all enjoying summer, even if your break hasn't started or if you don't have one.

I've decided to start this story up again! I may go back in the past chapters and edit them, but holy Junkos I'm lazy.

Anne is going to continue her adventure sometime this month. I promise. (My birthday is this month, yay!)

Some things to note:

**I STILL NEED IDEAS! **This story's basic outline is complete, obviously, but the details in between are, for the most part, up to the people who read.

**YES, THE HUNTER FROM CHAPTER ONE IS STILL IMPORTANT! **I don't know when exactly he blends into the story again, but he has a role in it. I removed the "Hunter" filter from this story though, he's not _that_ important.

**ANNE IS NOT GOING TO TURN INTO A ZOMBIE. **Sorry. She might have some close encounters tho.

**ANNE IS NOT GOING TO GET NASTY WITH ANYONE, ESPECIALLY A ZOMBIE. **Self explanatory, really. No smut. No romance with Anne. Probably not super intense action (I'm sorry this story sounds boring now doesn't it). Mostly Anne putting shit together and using other corrupt people to reach a common goal.

**IF YOU'RE GOING TO REVIEW, PLEASE TRY TO BE COHERENT. **Having reviews with no grammar or point is very frustrating.

**THIS STORY DOES NOT DIRECTLY ABIDE BY L4D'S LAWS.** Don't worry, I'm not going to make any direct changes to important facts, but I'm really not all that dedicated to everything being fitted exactly into L4D canon.

**FEEL FREE TO UNFOLLOW/UNFAVORITE/ECT THIS STORY.** Don't force yourself to like this, it's okay if you're not interested in it anymore.

Byeeee.

(Follow me on tumblr if you want to I guess. I'm zoeypuckett. I'll post updates and such.)


	5. I'll Put A Cold Pun Here Later

"So, anyway, what's your name?"

The little girl looked back at Anne in surprise, slightly startled; Her accompaniment had been so quiet for so long. Truth be told though, at most, it'd only been 5 minutes.

The brunette raised her left hand - which, though Anne hadn't noticed at first, was covered by a doctor's glove - and gave it a flick around. "That depends on who ya ask! But my parents call me Gabby. So! That's my name, Anne-lady." And just like that, she turned back around and went right back to walking.

Anne wasn't sure why she'd asked, but it felt better to hear Gabby's voice over the racket the thicket's ground made as they trogged awkwardly through it.

Looking closer through the trees, the building they were heading to started to make its presence clear. The moans of the undead cut through the almost-silence frequently, but it didn't seem to bother Gabby, and Anne wasn't going to be scared when a little girl wasn't.

A rancid, devilish scent hung to the younger of the two, and Anne decided quickly she didn't want to know. She knew she smelt a bit like it as well, for whatever reason.

Suddenly, Anne heard a light, quiet growl and herded Gabby ahead, hand going into her pack defensively to see if there was anything other than her pathetic dwarf gun that she could use in case things got ugly (there wasn't.).

Gabby still appeared unfazed and even giggled at Anne's fear, her eyes not wavering from the small hotel in the distance.

The elder looked closely through the trees and couldn't see anything, but she increased her pace anyway, pushing the younger forward as well.

**-TIME SKIP-**

After a couple more minutes of paranoid silence, Gabby turned back to Anne and with a smile, took a deep breath and said,

"WELCOME TO PARADISE FALLEN, SURVIVOR!"

**AN: End this chapter, which is technically chapter four. I'm sorry not too much happens here, I just wanted to write and there's not a whole lot that happens in the forest. Yeah, "Uncle" lives in a hotel which they called Paradise Fallen. Gabby and her parents have lived with him there for a while, but we'll get into that in the next chapter.**

** Gabby can be found on my tumblr blog in case you want to see her. Just ask me for a link and I'll try to give it to you, I'm not sure FF how works with links.**

**I'm going to rewrite the other chapters later, even if I only change a little bit of stuff. I PUT HOARD INSTEAD OF HORDE ONCE I HATE PAST ME.**

**Bye!**


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